Combined agitator and ink distributor for inking fountains of printing machines



Jan. 25, 1927'.

AINS

G. ORTLEB ET AL COMBINED AGITATOR AND INK DISTRIBUTOR FOR INKING FOUNT OF PRINTING MACHINES Filed Aug.10, 1923 iizazyfafia ye dfis.

Patented Jan. 25, 1927.

UNITED STATES GEORGE .OBTLEIB AND DOUGLAS B.

ORTLEB, OF ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI.

COMBINED AGITATOR AND INK DISTRIBUTOR FOR INKING FOUNTAINS OF PRINTING MACHINES.

Application filed August 10,

The primary object of this invention is for the purpose of providing an improved combination and relation of parts for providing an attachment to be secured to a printing press for stirring or agitatmg the printing ink contained in the ink fountain of the rinting press.

Anot er object of the invention is in providing an improved agitating and feeding attachment or device for an inking fountain which derives agitating motion from the fountain roller mechanism.

A further object of the invention is in providing an attachment for an inking fountain of a printing press which is arranged lengthwise thereof and in a manner wherein a plurality ,of agitating fingers can be readily secured thereto.

Other and further objects will appear in the specification and be specifically pointed out in the appended claims, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, exemplifying the invention, and in Which Figure 1 is a plan view of a fragmentary portion of an ink fountain of a printing press showing this improved attachment applied thereto.

Figure 2 is an enlarged side elevation of Fig. 1 taken in the direction of the arrow 2 in Fig.1.

Figure 3 is an enlarged transverse sect1on taken approximately on the line III-III of Fi 1.

Refining by numerals to the accompanying drawings, 1 desi nates a portion of a printing press and re ated thereto is an inking fountain 2 and arranged lengthwise of said fountain and forming one end thereof is a fountain roller 3, the inclining bottom 4 of said fountain also providing an end wall to the fountain which is disposed on one side of the fountain roller 3, the lower end of the bottom 4 being dis osed in close a proximity to the periphery o the fountain roller as shown more clearly in Fig. 3.

The fountain roller 3 is mounted on a shaft 5 andrigidly secured to the extending end of said shaft is a ratchet wheel 6 and co-operable therewith is a pawl 7', said pawl being pivotally secured at 8 to the upper end of a rock lejxer 9 and pivoted at 10 to the lower end of st'fd lever is a pitman 11.

Depended from the rear rtion 12 of the printing press to one side 0 the inking foun- 1923. Serial No. 656,647.

tain 2 is a bracket 13 having a horizontally disposed portion 14 which terminates into a vertically disposed bearing 15, and mounted in said bearing is a short shaft 16 having a disk 17 rigidly secured thereto at its upper end, and secured to said shaft beneath 60 said disk is a ratchet wheel 18 and loosely mounted on said shaft 16 beneath said ratchet wheel is an arm 19. Pivotally secured at 20 to said arm is a pawl 21 which is cooperable with the ratchet wheel 18 and for on co-operation with a pin 22 which is borne by said pawl is a leaf spring 23 having a pair of vertically disposed grooves or recesses 24 and 25.

Pivotally secured to the extending end of the arm 19 is a swivel block 25 and connected at 26 to said block is a connecting rod 27 and connected at 28 to the opposite end of said rod is 'a link 29, said link being secured at its opposite end at 30 to an (5 adjustable clamping member 31 which is clamped to the pitman 11.

The bracket 13' adjacent its upper end is provided with a horizontally disposed fiat sided opening 32 and secured to the rear portion 12 of the printing press in horizontal alinement with said opening 32 is a bracket 33 which is also provided with a flat sided opening, said openings being for the support of a slidable flat sided bar 34 which is ar- 35 ranged parallel to and lengthwise of the inkin fountain 2. Pivoted at 35 to the under si e of the bar 3 1 is apitman 36, the opposite end of said pitman being pivoted at 37 to the disk 17. v

Detachably secured to the bar 34 are a plurality of jaws 38 each having upwardly extending portions 39, and removably secured at 40 to each of said jaws is an agitating finger 41 each being extended into the ink- 5' in fountain 2, each of said fingers being of en b so as to extend to positions adjacent t e fountain roller 3.

In the operation of printing presses in which inking fountains of the character 100 shown are used in connection therewith, when it is desired to have the ink body to en-' gage only a part of the peripheral surface of the fountain roller 3, removable end walls such as 42 are used for containing the 106 ink in a section or portion of the fountain 2, as shown in Fig. 1, in which the pair 0f agitating fingers 41 are disposed within the confines walls 42.

When the printing press is put into operation, the pitman 11 is reciprocatcd by the driving mechanism (not shown) of the press and the rock lever 9 will be caused to swing on the shaft on which the fountain roller 23 is mounted, and inasmuch as the pawl T which is borne by said rock lever is adapted to engage the teeth of the ratchet wheel (3, intermittent rotary motion will be imparted to the fountain roller, and that part of the periphery of said fountain roller which is disposed between the pair of spaced apart removable end walls 42 will engage the ink body 4:) contained in the inking tonntain2.

-()n account of the clamping member 23 being secured to the pitman ll and the link :39 being connected thereto. the connecting rod 27 will be reciprrn-ated by the recipro eating motion imparted thereto from the pitman 11, and owing to the connecting rod being secured to the swivel block 25 which is depended from the arm 19, said arm will he loosely swung upon the short shaft 16, and as the pawl 21 which is adapted to engage with the teeth of the ratchet wheel 18 is borne by said arm, said ratchet wheel will be intermittently revolved thereby causing the disk 17 to be turned.

The pitman 36 which is secured to one end of the disk 17 and at its opposite end to the bar 34 will apply intermittent reciprocatory movement to said bar and such movement will be transferred to the agitating fingers 41 which are de ended within the ink body 43 of the inking ountain 2.

The intermittent movement applied to the bar 34 will cause said bar to be moved in short jerky motions in both directions of travel, and coincidently the agitating fingers will derive the same movement, said traveling intermittentvmovement when applied to the agitating fingers 41 creating a pulsating effect upon the ink body 43 in which the ink body will Wall up or mount against the forwardly traveling surface of each of the agitating fingers and will be forced upwardly against the periphery of the fountain roller 3 as designated at 44.

This jerky traveling motion of the agitating fingers upon the ink body 43, will not only force the ink against the periphery of the fountain roller but will continually a provided by the removable end ply a disturbing movement to the ink b0 yrather than stir the ink bod as in agitating (.levices'heretoforedescribed, said disturbing of the ink bod-y by the slow jerky motions of the agitating fingers being just enough to keep the ink body in motion so that it will not tend to set or harden,'said motions however not being great enough to thoroughly stir the ink so as to cause the ink to give off certain of the ingredients contained therein which would be detrimenta] to the ink body and rapidly create thickening or hardening thereof.

When it is desired to prevent the agitating lingers 41 from operating upon the ink body, the'pawl 21 is swung upon its pivot so that the pin 22 borne thereby will be forced into the recess 25" ot' the leaf spring 23, said spring and said recess holding said pawl in an inoperative position from the ratchet wheel 18 so that the arm 1!) to which said pawl is secured can be loosely swung upon the short shaft lti without imparting motion to the bar 34.

in the event the entire inking 'l'onntain length is used for containing an ink body. additional agitating lingers 41 are mounted in spaced apart relation on the bar 34.

What we claim is:'-

1. An agitating device for an inking fountain comprising a linger extended within said fountain adapted to travel lengthwise thereof, and means for applying intermittent traveling motion to said linger.

2. An agitating device for an inking fountain comprising a slidablc bar arranged lengthwise of the fountain, an agitating linger secured to said bar and extended within said fountain, and intermittent driving means co-operable withvsaid bar.

2 An agitating device for an inking fountain comprising a slidable bar arranged lengthwise of the fountain, an agitating tin ger secured to said bar and extended within said fountain, and intermittent reciprocal driving means co-operahle with said bar.

4. The combination of an inking fountain, a fountain roller, a slidable bar arranged lengthwise of said fountain, an agitating finger borne by said bar and extended within said fountain, means for driving said roller, and reciprocable means extended from said roller driving means co-operable with said bar for sliding said bar.

5. The combination of an inking fountain, a fountain roller, a slidable bar arranged lengthwise of said fountain, an agitating finger borne by said bar and extended within said fountain, reciprocal means for driving said roller, intermittent means for operating said bar, and a pitman connected to said reciprocal means and said intermittent driving means.

6. An agitating device for an inkin fountain comprising a plu ality of spaced apart fingers extended into said fountain, means for supporting said fingers, and means for providing a jerky traveling motion to said supporting means.

7. An agitating device for an inking fountam comprising a stirring element extended into said fountain, and means for providing a jerky traveling motion to said element.

8. An agitating device for an inking fountam comprising a movable member located adjacent to the fountain, a stirring element tain, and means for applying a jerky travelingmotion to said member.

9. An agitating device for an inking fountain comprising a stirring element extended into said fountain, and means for providing a jerky traveling motion to said element,

said means receiving its traveling motion from the driving mechanism of the print- .ing press to which the fountain is applicable.

10. An agitating device for an inking fountain comprising a movable member located adjacent to the fountain, a stirring element extended from said member into said fountain, and means for applying a jerky traveling motion to said member, said member receiving its traveling motion from the driving mechanism of the printing press to which the fountain is applicable.

11. An agitating device for an inking fountain comprising a plurality of fingers extended within said fountain adapted to travel lengthwise thereof, and means for applying a jerky traveling motion to said tingers.

12. The combination of an inking fountain, a fountain roller having its periphery in contact with the ink body contained in the fountain, and means for agitating the ink of the fountain at a plurality of points in the length of the ink body at intermittent.

interva 13. The combination of an inking fountain, a fountain roller having its periphery in contact with the ink body contained in the fountain and means for simultaneously agitating the ink of the fountain at a plurality of points in the length of the ink body at intermlttent intervals.

14. An ink agitator. comprising a fountain and ink roller, a plurality of stirring fingers projecting into said fountain, a carriage in the form'of a bar carrying said fingers and having intermittent reciprocal motion, a crank wheel supported from the fountain and a pawl and ratchet mechanism forming with said crank wheel the operating unit,

a reciprocating connecting rod from said pawl to a driven part of a printing press and a connecting rod from said crank wheel to the aforesaid carnage.

15. The herein described method of maintaining the consistency of an ink body which consists in agitating the ink body at 8. Phirality of points, and of repeating the agitating at a plurality of other points of the ink body.

16. The herein described method of maintaining the consistency of an ink body which consists in simultaneously agitating the ink body at a plurality of points, and of repeating the simultaneous agitation at other points of the ink body.

17. The herein described method of supplying suitable ink to a roller of an inking fountain which consists in agitating the ink body of the fountain at a plurality of points,

and of repeating the-agitation at a plurality of other points in the fountain.

18. The herein described method of supplying suitable ink to a roller of an inking fountain which consists in simultaneously agitating the inkbody of the fountain at a plurality of points,'and of repeating the simultaneous agitation at other points of the ink body.

GEORGE ORTLEB. DOUGLAS B. ORTLEB. 

